Sewing for Baby: Booties, Bibs, and Blankets

Man life has been busy.  It seems that I can only manage a post or 2 every month.  I've been busy with many projects lately but I haven't had much time for blogging about them!  Today I've managed to find some time to write another post in the Sewing for Baby series that I started back when my oldest daughter was a baby.  I have not one but three fun sewing projects to share with you today!  First up is my favorite thing to make lately: baby booties and shoes.  The pattern that I used for all of the examples in today's post is Maggie's Stay-on Baby Booties by Beautiful Pie Shop.  I've had this pattern for a long time but never tried it until a friend wanted some stay on type shoes for her daughter.  

I made my first pair for her using gray fleece and flannel lining.  I love this pattern so much.  It is easy to follow and they are really fun to make.  Plus they really do stay on!  I love them for my youngest because socks never stay on her feet and she is always pulling her carseat cover off of her feet.  I no longer worry about her little feet freezing!  I love making them so much that I now carry them in my Etsy shop The Petite Seam.  They can even be made without the cuff which you will see in a few of the photos below.

And here is my sweet baby girl modeling them in her 5 month photos (she is over 6 months now!)

 The next project is one that I have yet to make more of but I plan to make a lot more of them.  I hope to list them as a new item in my Etsy shop soon but so far I've only made one as a gift for a friend.

I used this tutorial for rounded pom pom bibs from the blog Life on Waller.  I didn't follow the tutorial to a T however because I hate hand stitching so left a small opening, flipped it right side out, then topstitched the entire bib.  I think topstitching makes it look more finished anyway.  The blog also has a tutorial for a fringe bib which I'm going to try next.

My final (or maybe not *wink wink*) project for today's post is a taggy blanket.

This little blanket was so easy to make.  I found some wooden teethers on Amazon but there are also some great ones on Etsy.  I cut a piece of cotton fabric and a piece of minky 17" by 17".  Then I cut a bunch of different pieces of ribbon about 4" each (it was around 32 pieces).  Just make sure you use ribbons with varying textures to make it interesting for baby to play with.   I wish I would of taken a picture of this step but I just folded each piece of ribbon in half and pinned the ends of the ribbon pieces to the right side of the cotton fabric.  For the wooden teether I just cut a slightly longer piece of ribbon and tied it around the teether and pinned that ribbon to one of the corners of the cotton fabric. Then I pinned the cotton and minky right sides together.  I sewed around the edge with a 3/8 inch seam allowance making sure to leave a roughly 2 inch opening. Then I flipped the blanket right side out, pressed, and pinned the opening shut.  Finally I topstitched around the entire blanket.

The watercolor blanket was a part of a baby gift for a friend but I also made one for my baby to go in her Easter basket.  I forgot to take a picture after it was done.  If you look closely you can see the pins in this one because it still needs to be topstiched.  Also that pacifier clip will be a future blog post :).

Finally I have a few more things to share with you that kept me busy at my sewing machine in February.  You may remember that I recovered the glider cushions in my daughter Lyla's nursery (I'm using the same glider in Ana's room now).  You can read more about that here.  Recently my friend asked me to make slipcovers for the glider in her daughter's nursery.  I love how this glider turned out.  The cushions before were a light green.

 I also made a few changing pad covers for her.  You can read more about those in this other Sewing for Baby series post.

Also how amazing is that mid mod dresser that they painted teal!

This isn't all that I've been busy with of course.  I have also been working on a couple of more sewing projects related to cloth diapers that I will share in a future post that will also include an update on our cloth diapering experience.  As far as home improvement projects go I've taken my focus downstairs with our family room and my sewing studio getting paint jobs and some other exciting projects in the sewing studio which I will give you a hint at in this picture.

I will give you a tutorial on how to make that cute cactus teacup pincushion that you see next to my sewing machine in my next post!

Christmas Pajamas

Now that it is after Thanksgiving it is probably okay to post about these cute Christmas pjs that I made for my daughter right?  I purchased this Red and Green Fairisle Deer fabric from Girl Charlee Fabrics last year.  I had already gotten one good use out of the yard I ordered by making these cute leggings for Lyla last year

Here is my little cutie sporting her Christmas leggings at around 5 months old.  By the way the pattern is called Baby Got Back Leggings which you can read more about in this post.

I still had a significant amount of the Fairisle Deer fabric left and I thought that Christmas pajamas would be the perfect use for it.  I found a pattern called Movie Night Pajamas from Sew a Little Seam which I was excited to try.  I like this pattern a lot and I will be getting a ton of use out of it. The pattern includes options for shorts bottoms and long bottoms, short sleeve and long sleeve tops, and the option to add gathered sleeves to give the pajamas a more feminine touch.  It is also a layered pattern which is nice because you have the option to only print the pattern for the size you are making.

The size options are 12 months-12 years which is yet another reason that I will get a ton of use out of this pattern!  I made 2T for Lyla even though she is mostly wearing 18 month clothes.  They are a little long in the sleeves and legs since I made the 2T size but otherwise the fit is awesome!  I had just enough of the Fairisle Deer fabric for the pants and the sleeves of the shirt.  The other fabrics that I used were a grey interlock from Joann Fabrics for the rest of the shirt and white rib knit also from Joann Fabrics for the sleeve and leg cuffs.  

With this project I also use a double needle for the first time to hem the shirt.  I found some good tips on using a double needle here, here, here, and here.  Your machine needs to be able to do a zigzag stitch to accommodate a double needle and you need to have somewhere to put a second spool of thread.  I actually have a place to attach a second spool holder but I have lost the attachment so I just dropped the second spool into a small mason jar that I placed behind my machine.  I checked in my sewing machines manual for tips on how to thread the two needles.  It was quite easy actually and I liked the professional looking results.

 I used my Silhouette Portrait to add the Merry and Bright lettering with gold glitter heat transfer material.  

Hopefully you enjoyed this post and found some helpful hints.  Oh and if you like that bokeh light effect in the background of some of these photos check back for a post on how I did it in the near future!

Maxaloones and The Eleanor Dress

Happy Fall! I can't believe it has been over a month since I wrote a blog post.  That wasn't my intention but sometimes life gets busy.  There are no lack of projects to share but I just haven't had the motivation to post about them.

Today I am writing about 2 patterns for baby/children's clothing that I have tried recently.  The first pattern is a pattern for pants called Maxaloones by Max and Meena Patterns.  The pants have an extra piece in the bottom that makes them great for cloth diapered babies.  They also have a belly band and leg bands that allow the pants to grow with the child by adjusting the bands.  I made a couple of pairs for my friend's son.  It was a pretty easy pattern to follow and they are really cute.

The navy jersey knit and fish interlock fabric both came from our local fabric store Modern Textiles. The deer jersey knit is from Girl Charlee Fabrics.

The next pattern is The Eleanor Dress from Shwin Designs.  This pattern has several collar and sleeve options for the dress and also has a shirt option. The dress also has pockets which I love. I loved this pattern.  It was easy to follow and turned out so cute.  It was my first time using rib knit and the pattern gave really clear instructions on using it.  I plan to make a few long sleeve shirts for her using this pattern in the near future.

The chevron fabric that I used was from Girl Charlee Fabrics.  The green and yellow chevron is no longer available but they have plenty more colors of chevron knits on their site.  When I first saw this fabric I bought about 6 yards because it is the colors of my alma mater North Dakota State University.  I also recently made another pair of Baby Got Back Leggings with the same fabric.

Here she is sporting them at the rehearsal of the alumni band at homecoming a week and a half ago.  I am not sure when or what I will post about next but I have no lack of options so keep checking back!

Sewing for Baby: Three Baby Skirts

Hello lovely readers!  Lately I have been pretty obsessed with sewing.  I have gotten over most of my fears when sewing and I love trying and learning new things.  I am currently in the middle of sewing quite a few baby things for other people but I can't resist throwing in a few projects for my baby girl. Today I have a post on three tutorials from other bloggers that I followed to make some adorable skirts.  But before I get to that, I wanted to share some more cute leggings that I made for Lyla to wear during the holiday season.  You can read more about the leggings in this post.

Seriously how cute are those leggings!  The fabric was another jersey knit from Girl Charlee Fabrics. Ok we'll move on to the skirts now.

The first skirt is actually a pattern that I purchased on Craftsy.  The pattern is called Twirly Baby Skirt.  The pattern isn't free but the cost is under $5.  The fabric I used was a Cotton + Steel print.

Things I Liked

• the flat front on the waist band
• the overall look of the skirt

Things I Didn't Like

• gathering-mostly because it was my first time doing it-I just need more practice
• the sizing was way off: I made the 6-12 month size and it seems more like 0-3 month size  
• the tutorial could of used more pictures to make some of the directions more clear

I don't have any pictures of my Lyla modeling this one because there was no way she could fit in this. I will find a tiny baby girl to fit in it, don't worry.  This fabric is too cute to waste.

My next skirt is by Pitter Patterns and is called Simple Skirt Pattern.  It was a free pattern. I found the hot air balloon fabric at Joann Fabrics.

Things I Liked

• no cutting of pattern pieces-all the pieces are rectangles so you just have to measure
• the elastic casing isn't right at the top of the skirt-an interesting detail
• the accent strip also gave a nice look to the skirt.  
• the directions were very clear

Things I Didn't Like

• nothing!  I loved this one so much

This pattern also included a sash but my little almost 6 month old loves to grab things so I knew it would be off in two seconds.  The skirt is just as adorable with out it.  I added the ric rac trim to add another cute detail to it.  

Seriously how cute is this skirt on my little model!  I just love it!

The last skirt is from Punkin Patterns blog and the post is called Easy-Peasy Skirts.  The fabric is from Joann Fabrics.  Cats and teacups, so cute!

Things I Liked 

• it was so easy, just like the title of the tutorial indicates
• directions were easy to follow
• you calculate the measurements of the skirt by measuring the child you are sewing for so the fit is tailored to the recipient of the skirt

Things I Didn't Like

• that mini pom pom trim was hard to sew on!-but that is my fault for choosing to add it.

I added mini pom pom trim which looks so cute but it was difficult to sew on.  I thought I could make it easier with the zipper foot but that didn't really help so I just had to forcefully guide it through.  It doesn't look so neat on the inside but you can't tell on the outside.

This skirt also looked great on my model of course.  I do not recommend using 6 month old models though ;).  They are very hard to photograph as evidenced by these outtakes.

 40 photos taken=3 non-blurry photos

Also, 6 month old girls aren't always very lady-like.

Well that is it for tonight.  I will probably have at least one more post for January but we'll see.